First, comes the shock. People are shocked. Don recognizes this stage as soon as he sees the eyes of the audience after he is done exposing his plan. The group remains speechless for a few seconds.
Then come almost simultaneously the second, third, and fourth stages. Denial, anger, and bargaining. They translate into questions and violent statements from the group to eventually conclude with begging Don to stay.
By not answering, Don lets his decision sink in people’s mind, which normally triggers the rest of the process.
Indeed. After they have been given enough time to express themselves, they eventually all come back to their senses and start calming down.
Depression is the fifth stage during which people realize that Don will not change his mind and that what happens is inevitable. They simply stop trying to convince him.
Don knows it is now time to move to stage six. He takes his audience through the testing phase during which people start to look for realistic solutions. The solutions are represented by the list of tasks Don worked on. With that, they now have a better idea of what they will need to do. And most importantly, how they will do without Don.
And finally, Pam concludes the process by taking the leadership role Don expected her to take since he started his speech. She is the one now showing the group the way forward. She completes step number seven; acceptance.
After a short celebration as the only way people have found to say goodbye and good luck to Don, everyone eventually goes back to their quarters.
A few minutes after reaching his bedroom, Don receives John’s visit.
He wants to join him in his quest.
Don rejects his offer. He says he will be more comfortable alone.
But John does not give up so easily. He learned a lot from Don over the past two weeks, and he wants to give back. After telling Don about his own personal situation and the fact that he lost his wife because of his cowardice, he pursues with more practical reasons as to why it would be preferable for Don not to leave alone.
“Two guns are better than one. I’ll watch your back. I mean, look, you are the one teaching us to always go by two when we patrol,” John says.
“True. But you don’t need to do that for me. And to be honest with you, John, it’s possible this trip will just be a one-way ticket.”
“And what do I have to lose? Look, I’m not just doing you a favor, I’m doing myself one. I left my wife behind. I need to make amends with myself. I didn’t save her, but I need to help you try to save yours. I said the same to Pam when we ambushed the mercenaries. And she let me,” John says.
“We may not find them. It may all be for nothing,” Don says.
“It’s not the right attitude, Don. And it’s all the more a reason for you not to be alone in such an eventuality. I was alone after what happened to my wife. It was hell for me. It will be hell for you as well. You will need to rest on someone. Come on, Don. What do you say? Together?” John asks.
Don takes a few seconds to think. He knows all of John’s arguments make sense. And John has proven himself quite skilled during practice. He would definitely be an asset and not a burden.
Don finally replies.
“Together.”
The following morning, John announces the news of his departure to Henry, Pam, Jack, and the kids. They don’t try to convince him otherwise because they know him and understand his reasons. They all gather around him and hold him in their arms.
After everything they’ve been through together, they have become like a small family. This is a kind of familiarity they can afford only among their small group. It is still too early for them to show similar signs of humanity to the rest of the base.
After this moving moment, John gathers his things and meets Don in front of his room.
It’s time to go.
The base has suddenly gone very quiet. There is no one around. No one to escort the two men to the elevator. John assumes that people must be sad and don’t want to see them leave. They probably closed themselves in their rooms. Don replies that he would do the same if he were them.
But when they arrive at the elevator, they realize how men sometimes have no clue how people operate and how feelings get expressed.
They are now standing in front of the entire base. They’ve all come here to say goodbye one last time.
Goodbye, not farewell.
The two innocent four-year-old children emerge from the crowd and come to the two heavily armed men. The contrast of these two angels and the two men all geared up to serve death facing each other is striking to everyone.
After a few seconds spent staring at the men up and down, as if they were two top brasses checking their soldiers’ equipment, both kids say at the same time, “We love you. Come back soon.”
It takes Don and John a couple of seconds to realize what the kids have just said to them.
And as soon as their brains are done processing the information and understand it requires a responding emotion, they drop the bags they were carrying, kneel down, and take the kids in their arms.
The rest of the crowd then repeats word for word what the kids have just said.
Everyone’s eyes are red. Don and John are crying but try to hide their tears behind the children’s frail bodies.
Pam slowly approaches and tells them this is the best way the people here have found to make sure that no matter what happens, they both now have a very good reason to come back to the base.
“Now that’s what I call strategy,” Don says, smiling and sniffing.
The crowd cheers and laughs as everyone withdraws from the front of the elevator to let the two men go.
It is alone that Don and John reach the parking garage floor. The atmosphere is very different from a minute ago. Less colorful, less joyful, more silent, more sinister. John still thinks about what just happened, while Don is already fully concentrated as his military reflexes and skills took over his emotions the second the doors opened to the garage.
As John walks towards his car, Don tells him they will not be taking it. Vehicles that will be more appropriate for the mission are waiting for them a little deeper in the garage.
They stop in front of a military vehicle.
It is big. Not that big, but very imposing.
John’s first impression is one of power.
Quickly followed by one of indestructibility.
Don confirms. All military vehicles are armored and bulletproof. Not only is the body reinforced, but so are the windows and the windshield. The car is fully equipped with advanced weaponry capabilities. It is topped with an automatic high-powered machine gun. It can rotate around its base, thus covering a 360-degree firing range. In the event enemies come too close to the vehicle, an electric system lifts up the gun so it can aim and shoot as close as three feet from the car. But if someone manages to come close enough to the vehicle, they will be out of the machine gun range and be free to do whatever they want.
This last comment leaves John a bit perplexed. But Don confirms they don’t have to worry about that. He has never experienced a situation like this in any of the conflicts he has covered. No threat has ever managed to come so close without being cut in half by the bullets.
“Yes, when fired upon at more than five thousand rounds per minute, you are cut in half,” Don says.
John notes that despite some of the space being used by the boxes of food, water, and ammunitions, there is still enough space in the back to sleep without having to curl up. Without asking, John sits on the passenger seat, knowing that Don is in charge and will be the one driving.
It is with a renewed sense of confidence and invincibility that John checks his gun and ammunitions while Don starts the car.
The garage door opens in front of them and the car slowly starts its ascent towards daylight.
The tunnel door separating the belly of the mountain from the outside will only open after Don, just as he did when the group first came, asks permission in his walkie-talk
ie.
As John hears the words “everything is clear, you’re good to go” on the radio, Don hands him a pair of sunglasses.
CHAPTER 18
Before John even has a chance to understand what he is supposed to do with the sunglasses, the tunnel door opens to the outside world. An intense light rushes in so fast that John barely has enough time to close his eyes.
“Put them on”, Don says.
While keeping his eyes shut, John executes Don’s order and carefully reopens his eyes.
This is the first time John sees the natural light since they arrived at the base. After a minute of adapting to this new but familiar environment, John removes his sunglasses. He can feel the warmth of the sun behind his window. It is a nice feeling, so different from the cold artificial light of the base. He didn’t expect being outside would have such an effect on him. He feels like he was reborn and understands now why people are not spending more than six months in the depths of the base.
Don explains the plan to John. They are going more than two thousand miles east. He expects it should take them about a week to reach their destination. It means a week of absolute concentration and stress. There is a lot of danger out there. Today they exceptionally drive in broad daylight because they are covered by the mountain and the trees. And also because the base surveillance system has a two hundred mile range and Don knows there are no threats on sight. And if one appears, they will be warned by the men at the base on the radio.
Now that the plan has briefly been laid out, John will not hear another word coming out of Don’s mouth for the next three days. Except for very basic orders or just single words. No more sentences, no more conversations. Don is absolutely concentrated on their environment. He’s looking everywhere. Sometimes stopping the car for no apparent reason, getting out and standing outside while apparently listening to the silence. John doesn’t say anything at all. He understands the situation they are in, and it is not one where cheap talk is usually particularly appreciated.
On the third day, while Don is resting, John stands guard and observes a large convoy on a nearby road. He’s seen these in the past. Driverless trucks. But he never saw so many at once. There must be a hundred trucks, each driving at the exact same speed and separated by the exact same distance. After a few minutes, and realizing he actually does not understand what these trucks are doing here, he decides he should wake Don up.
It is not necessary. Don is already standing next to him. As a soldier, Don never sleeps completely. His senses are always on alert. And this time, just like many times before, is not different. Something was unusual, he could feel it, and it pulled him out of his sleep.
From what they both see, the convoy does not qualify as an immediate threat. However, it really picks their curiosity. Don decides they should try and find out what this is about. Finding so many trucks in such a place is unusual. Maybe GAIA is building another Metropolis nearby. They don’t know. But so much activity has necessarily a reason and they are determined to find out what it is.
If they manage to understand what is going on, it will certainly be valuable intelligence in the future. For once, if GAIA has a plan, they could be one step ahead.
By the time they are ready to go, they can see the end of the convoy. They will follow it from a distance and stay under cover as long as they can. They just hope it will not take them to the other side of the country.
But they are lucky. After only a few hours following the trucks, they seem to go towards some kind of factory. Another convoy leaves the premises at the same time the trucks arrive. If it really is a factory, it seems to be running at full capacity.
It is still daylight and Don and John can position themselves at a safe distance and observe the facility and its surroundings. It doesn’t appear guarded or even protected. But nothing is sure when it comes to GAIA and its technology. It is possible that all the area is so well monitored by cameras, sensors and things of that nature that physical troops are not necessary. And if it is so well protected, it will be very difficult for Don and John to get closer while remaining unnoticed. It could also mean taking the chance of being captured and not being able to complete their original mission; find Don’s wife and son.
In fact, they won’t need to get close to the area. As the night falls, Don tells John they are able to know what’s inside the factory without even leaving their car. John doesn’t understand until Don pulls a box, not bigger than a shoe box, from behind his seat.
As he opens it, he unveils a couple of devices that look like golf balls, except that they are black. The inside cover of the box is actually a screen that Don turns on by simply pressing his thumb on a fingerprint reader. Don types a command on the touch screen, which triggers a small vibration from the balls.
“Alright, we have contact,” Don says.
“What is that?” John asks.
“Our eyes,” Don answers. “Drones. We are going to use them to see what’s over there.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?” John asks.
“Yes, take one, go out, and throw it in the air. I’ll take it from there,” Don says.
John carefully takes one of the drones and slowly goes outside as if he was carrying an egg. Even though Don tells him not to worry, John sees a fragile concentrate of technology in his hands. But above anything else, a way for them both to stay safe while the drones do all the work. So just for that reason, John will be extra careful with them.
As ordered by Don, John throws the drone in the air. As he doesn’t see or hear anything, a self-preservation reflex makes him cover his head with his hands. His brain processed the silence as a warning sign that the law of gravity would eventually pull the drone back on his head.
This scene makes Don smile. He tells John the drone is already quite far and that he should come back and take a look at the screen.
Don remotely controls the drone. It is not very fast, and the quality of the picture they see on the screen is perfect. Don constantly switches between several modes; night vision, infrared, and normal. He wants to get a good sense of the immediate environment of the drone. John notices that the drone gains altitude until its camera has an almost complete oversight of the factory. Don zooms in and they can distinguish the trucks they followed earlier.
“Alright. The Sentinel is in place. Now, let’s send the Hunter,” Don says.
“Sentinel? Hunter?” John asks.
Don explains that the Sentinel is watching everything. Its purpose is to have a complete view of a target and to allow the troops on the ground to see any kind of movement or threats. It also scans the entire facility it is monitoring and creates a tri-dimensional map that Don can use to direct the Hunter.
The Hunter is more mobile. Its purpose is to go deep in the detail. Don just needs to point his finger at a specific location on the map to send the Hunter wherever he wishes to see things in greater detail. The Hunter can also go inside a building, but it becomes a little tricky as the Sentinel doesn’t have visibility inside. Whoever controls the Hunter then needs to manually pilot it based on what its camera sees. It requires extreme concentration as it is easy to get spotted inside a building or to bump into something and lose the drone.
“Got it. I assume you want me to throw the Hunter in the air now, right?” John asks.
“Yes,” Don answers.
A minute later, John is back in the car and looks at the screen as Don tries to assess from the map what seems to represent the best interest for an intelligence gathering mission.
“I guess I would take a look at and around the trucks. They are probably here to load or unload something,” John says.
“Yes, that’s where I was about to send the drone,” Don confirms.
As the Hunter slowly flies over and around the trucks, Don and John only see robots. They are all aligned in the back of each truck and get inside but they don’t seem to come back out.
Don thought of these robots as loading/unloading robots first. But
it now seems to him that they are actually the merchandise the trucks are being loaded with.
They have enough information. They don’t know where the robots will be delivered but it doesn’t matter for now. No need to stay here any longer. There’s probably nothing else of importance to learn from the factory.
Don brings the drones back to the car and puts them in their box. Each drone records everything they see. They will study this information in more detail when they are back at the base. The drones also record their coordinates. It will be easy to enter the position in the satellites and keep monitoring the activity of the factory from above. And if necessary, plan an attack against the facility.
After what they’ve seen, putting this location near the top of the list of their future targets is more than just a possibility.
“Observe your surroundings well. I bet we will come back here in the near future. And not just for pictures this time,” Don says.
John nods. He understands what Don means.
The rest of the trip does not bring any more surprises. It is actually quite uneventful. Don and John both expected to find mercenaries on their way, and almost seem disappointed they didn’t. John really wanted to see the full firing power of their car. Especially the machine gun over their heads. And Don would also have loved to show him its destructive capabilities. It seems like, for a few minutes only, the boys they once were took over on the men they are.
As they get back to being men, Don concedes that he is in fact quite happy they didn’t encounter any mercenaries. Even though he would have been extremely generous with bullets, he would also have been very irritated to waste his ammunitions for these low life men instead of using them against GAIA.
As they finally reach their destination, John only sees ruins around him. It reminds him of his own village after the robots destroyed it. There is no sign of life. Even the birds seem to have deserted the area.
ACTIVATION Page 16